


A Belated Apology Is Better Than None

by InterPlanetary_Redacted



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Family Feels, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Gen, Jedi Temple (Star Wars), Little bit of angst, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Post-Epiosde: s02e08 The Rescue, Talking, Two of them, apologizing, like its tiny tiny tiiiiny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28831308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InterPlanetary_Redacted/pseuds/InterPlanetary_Redacted
Summary: Grogu sleeps for most of the journey, happily leaning against Luke while they travel to the Jedi temple which Luke has made repairs to and upgraded before attempting to find students, so they had to place to both live and learn. He doesn’t actually wake up until they’re walking through the jungle, already halfway to the actual temple itself once landing.///Grogu spent time in the old Jedi temples, and I wanted SOMEBODY to apologize to Grogu
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda, Grogu | Baby Yoda & Anakin Skywalker, Grogu | Baby Yoda & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 14
Kudos: 96





	A Belated Apology Is Better Than None

**Author's Note:**

> is this short and written 10 minutes after I woke until 30 minutes after I got access to my archaeology exam paper?? mayhaps, but I needed it. ive been thinking about this for daaaaays

When Luke initially picked up Grogu from the Imperial Cruiser, he hadn’t known what to expect from his future student. He’s yet to have any long-term students, what with still being in the process of gathering students in the first place, but Grogu was determined to come, from what Luke could tell in his message. 

What he didn’t know, quite yet, was the Mandalorian he was picking him up from was his father - that hadn’t been in the message, and Luke was kind of stressed out about it momentarily. He did not have any reason to believe that the man would come after him to murder him other than the fact he just took his child away, there is apparently some bad blood between Jedi and Mandalorians (bit of an understatement), and the fact that that is exactly what Luke would probably do if the situation were reversed. To an extent. 

Grogu projects humour back at Luke’s unintentional projection of what the kid’s father might do to him, so Luke chooses to take that as a sign of “there’s nothing to worry about” over “this is exactly what will happen when he finds us” instead. 

“We’ll contact him later, okay?” Luke promises. “Once we get you settled in.” Grogu’s presence in the force is happy and agreeable with this, and he makes the most adorable babbling noises that make him just melt. (He’d never say it, but he’s warmed up to Grogu much faster than he has Ben - not to say he loves him any less, but the impression he has is much cuter.) 

Grogu sleeps for most of the journey, happily leaning against Luke while they travel to the Jedi temple which Luke has made repairs to and upgraded before attempting to find students, so they had to place to both live and learn. He doesn’t actually wake up until they’re walking through the jungle, already halfway to the actual temple itself once landing. 

Luke can’t find it in himself to be bothered though, 

* * *

Over the next two weeks, they get to know each other better, meditating together for several hours of the day with regular breaks to grow more used to each other's presence and mind. This will allow him to contact Grogu’s father by following the bond Grogu still has with him while being as unobtrusive as possible. 

It is during this time which he learns a lot about his student’s history. 

While he knew that Grogu was fifty years old despite appearing so young (and that begged the question, despite how old he was, when did Master Yoda begin to mature into his wise old self when Grogu didn’t have the ability to talk yet?) he had not realised that he had been trained from when he was incredibly young with the jedi at the old temple. 

It wasn’t a disturbing thing to find out as such, more that Luke felt sad for him and wanted to comfort him. Something which he ended up doing more times than he expected since Grogu would often say he wants to be in his own bed and then Luke would wake up to find him crawling in him in the middle of the night with the intent to sleep on Luke. 

Not that Luke minded, because he really, really didn’t. 

What hurt more, Luke considers, is the fact that Grogu interacted with his father from when he was there. Not outright or directly, all the time, but there were times. 

Luke actually learned more about his father from Grogu’s mind than he did from what anybody told him growing up. He saw him arguing with people Grogu knows as cheché masters in his head - Luke gets the feeling that they were the ones who looked after the youngest children. He saw him building and taking apart different mechanic pieces while he was apparently sulking in the corner of the room. He saw him as he grew older, returning from missions, taking his “creché duty” and maturing through his padawan years before the war broke out. 

All of this was unintentional of course, it was just Grogu sharing memories he had of being in the old jedi temple, but Luke unconsciously paid attention to it, starved for information since he’d never been told anything more than impulsive and a good pilot, even after meeting his father and forming a connection with him after death. 

He saw what the war did to the people surrounding Grogu who, despite being older than any of the padawan’s there, didn’t fully understand why there felt like there was so much pressure coming from the force. 

He watches as Grogu is hidden away, when there is sounds of blaster fire and lightsabers cutting down people with no effort, the sounds of grunting and screaming and nobody seeing Grogu. (He wasn’t taken until later.) 

He feels an almost crushing guilt on his father’s behalf before he lets it go into the force, before he’s ready to sit down and discuss with Grogu what happened. 

It was devastating what this child has been through, twice his age and just as much, if not more, life experience than him despite not being able to do as much. Luke wished he could make it better, but he knows he can’t, he explained to Grogu. 

“If I  _ were _ able to go back in time and change something, there’s no way of knowing if what I were able to do would result in life now being worse than it is. Would we still, as a galaxy, go through what we have with facing the empire? What if, in saving you, or saving my father-” a fact he had been honest with Grogu about from the start, “-I make things worse? It’s why we have to let things go into the force. If I did that, then we likely wouldn’t be here now, and there’s no guarantee that you would have met your  _ buir _ either,” Luke explains gently, while attempting to not butcher the language of Grogu’s father. This thought apparently makes Grogu upset, giving small noises of discontent, so Luke ends their morning discussion there and watches as Grogu burns off energy chasing insects to munch on. 

Luke wishes he could do more for Grogu, but frankly the child learnt from more experienced Jedi than him. Is he an experienced pilot? He did manage to get to and stay at the top of the ranking list even after his first first battle. But he would not claim to be an experienced jedi, considering how little he was actually taught. What he was able to do, however, is take Grogu through the motions of learning to control his abilities better, practically. 

* * *

That night, while they’re eating dinner, Luke feels his father’s presence. He knows it’s his father’s by it being the one he’s most familiar with, and the fact he’s been expecting his father to turn up for a while. 

Like them, he is sat at the low table which makes up one of Luke’s meagre possessions - he won’t claim to follow all of the jedi teaching, but this is more out of habit he learned with the rebellion that he thinks would likely be useful for those of his future students who choose to become nomadic. 

Grogu seems both fascinated and worried. Fascinated by what is happening but worried about the fact that it is the man who ruled as the Emperor’s right hand - and slaughtered everybody he’d ever known before. 

“Hello, Father,” Luke greets calmly, continuing to eat but keeping an eye on both of them. 

“Luke, Grogu,” he nods at them both, a slight smile on his face. “I have come to...talk, to Grogu. To apologize,” he tells them. 

Grogu still feels uncomfortable, Luke can tell, however he is aware of what is happening and isn’t running away and Luke counts that alone as a win. 

His father then turns to Grogu slightly more and becomes more sombre. “I am incredibly sorry for everything that I put you through over this time since the temple was destroyed. I have no excuse for what I have done, and I cannot make amends any longer - that is not something I have the power to do. But, that does not mean I cannot apologise.” 

Grogu does not react for several moments, before burbling incoherently in a nervous but reassuring manner, a feeling that is echoing throughout his force. It is not forgiveness, or even understanding, but it is acceptance. Luke doesn’t know if in time either of those things will come from Grogu for his father, but Luke feels slightly more comfortable regardless, not quite as guilty over something he cannot control. 

His father stays for the rest of dinner, talking to them about what he remembers of the temple’s teachings in a way that is as unbiased as possible, but even without the input of his father, he knows that he would make some changes to the way his students will be taught. 

* * *

It takes another week of meditation, some days his father joining them, before Luke feels comfortable enough to reach through Grogu’s bond to let his dad know where they are residing. 

From there, Grogu’s anticipation builds. After a semi-stressful conversation which takes ten minutes to explain how it is happening in the first place - a fact Grogu finds endlessly amusing, although so does Anakin as they sit together, watching Luke mentally flail in his explanations to the man before giving the coordinates with the instruction to “please don’t tell anybody  _ where  _ you’re actually going because I put way too much effort to finding a temple that can be hidden so well, goodbye.” 

“Grogu, your father is a menace,” Luke tells him with a nod, and Grogu’s force presence lights up brighter than it had before and he giggles. 

**Author's Note:**

> okay listen. i LOVE fics where Anakin's force ghost is just there chillin and hanging out with Luke and Grogu, but man ive seen some fics where Grogu just has no issues with him despite what he did??? I get that he was a child - but STILL! I wanted Anakin apologising to Grogu about what happened and so I wrote him apologising to Grogu about what happened.   
> Either way, hope you enjoyed, my tumblr is the same as my ao3 so interplantary-redacted, and now I'm gonna go check out that archaeology exam I mentioned.   
> Okay, so remember, wear a mask if you go out, kudos and comments are my lifeblood, and take care of yourselves, remember to drink water!   
> ///  
> This probably won't be exanded upon, sorry,


End file.
